Need Help Networking External Drive(s) to work with Time Machine

I've been researching my brains out for the past 2 days on this, because I have to remove a ton of material from my laptop before it goes kaput.

Here's the plan...I think:

I want to move photos, movies (home movies not DVDs) and iTunes library from my MacBook Pro to an external HD attached to the wifi router so I don't have to be hard wired to access photos, music, etc. while at home.

I want to continue using Time Machine to back up a) my laptop and b) the files moved to the external drive.

This will require a SECOND external drive.

My understanding is this is possible if the SECOND external drive is attached ONLY to an Apple 802.11ac Airport (Express or Time Capsule). No other wifi routers will work (?)

The Airport would be connected via ethernet to an existing Netgear 52 wifi router that Comcast installed for the sake of handling our home security system and which cannot be removed.

My understanding is this is possible if the SECOND external drive is attached ONLY to an Apple 802.11ac Airport (Express or Time Capsule). No other wifi routers will work (?)

The Airport would be connected via ethernet to an existing Netgear 52 wifi router that Comcast installed for the sake of handling our home security system and which cannot be removed.

Click to expand...

Time Machine support is offered on a few different brands and models, however only Apple routers offer full support. The AirPort Extreme is available for $129 from Apple refurbished store.

In this case, I would purchase either a Time Capsule or an Extreme and connect it to the Comcast-supplied Netgear. Then, I would configure a static IP on the AirPort and add it to the DMZ of the Netgear. All clients will connect to the AirPort and not the Netgear. You can connect multiple hard disks to the AirPort by using a powered USB hub.

Staff Member

I want to continue using Time Machine to back up a) my laptop and b) the files moved to the external drive.

Click to expand...

The flaw in your plan is this bit here. You can connect use USB hub to connect two drives to the Airport Extreme and use one drive for Time Machine backups and the second to store you videos and such.... but Time Machine is not going to be able to backup files from that second drive.

Time Machine can be used to backup external USB drives attached directly to the Mac, but not over a network like this.

You would need to use some sort of third party utility to backup/clone the second drive with the video to another drive if you wanted it backed up.

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